Labor, or lack thereof

The story of how it went from "let's get things started, this could take a day or two" to "we're scheduling you for c-section at 12:30 and you'll have your baby by 1 o'clock".

Getting Started: We got to the hospital at 6am with a bunch of things packed to entertain us for the long process and help Stacy through the process of labor and Stacy's sister Nicole who was able to join us. Before they could give Stacy the drug (Pitocin) that kick-started the contractions, everything had to be softened up and ready. For that they gave her another drug (Cytotec) that helps soften things up and sometimes starts contractions on its own. Normally this would take a few hours then they would give her the Pitocin that would start the labor process that could take anywhere from 8 to 24+ hours.

Maybe Not: Stacy was being monitored continuously both for contractions and the baby's heartbeat. Not long after she got the Cytotec she began registering some small contractions that Stacy couldn't even feel. Normally, a baby's heart beat drops slightly, sometimes not so slightly, after each contraction and then recovers in time for the next one. A healthy baby can go on like that for a couple days. Nathan wasn't recovering so well from even the small contractions. After a few late recoveries in a row they decided Nathan wouldn't be able to handle the labor process at all (the technical term is "intolerance to labor") so they decided to stop the contractions completely (with another drug) and schedule Stacy for a c-section at 12:30.Wow, that was fast. That all happened by 10:30am.

Unsolved Mystery: At noon they took Stacy into the operating room to be prepped and Rodney had to stay outside, put on a sterile jumpsuit, boots and hat, and wait. The operating room was pretty scary and eveyone was all business. They finally let Rodney come in and he was able to hold Stacy's hand and see part of the delivery.

Everything went very well except for the presence of meconium (warning, link not pleasant) and what we later found out was something strange about the umbilical cord. Apparently, the entire cord was blue and at first the operating doctors thought one of the umbilical arteries (there are two plus an umbilical vein[1]) was completely clogged with a clot[2]. They sent the placenta and umbilical cord to be studied[3].

After delivery Nathan was doing great with an APGAR score of 8 or 9. We were able to watch while they cleaned him up and put Stacy back together. Once he was cleaned and wrapped up Rodney got to hold him and lay his head on Stacy's shoulder for a couple minutes.

Notes:

[1] Some babies are born with only one artery and one vein with no problems.

[2] Later, they decided it was probably an aneurysm that bled into the space between the arteries and the umbilical cord membrane.

[3] We still don't have the results. We may never know the root cause of all this excitement.